By Ezekiel Nabieu
Prosperity consists in prospering and not in having prospered. It is not historical. It is a now phenomenon. Don’t tell me you had 10 houses and billions of Leones in Kono which were all destroyed and taken away by rebels adding that you are prosperous.
Unfortunate as that situation is you may be living on alms by the grace of God. Prosperity is also not a tantalising future event.
Over 50 years ago Sierra Leone was prospering. Is it so as at now? Answer that question for yourself. We are supposed to be in the club of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the whole wide world but some of us have not been well treated because we cannot afford our membership fees.
They are prohibitive. Those who afford those fees not only flaunt them but they deride you. And in turn from your situation of near beggardom you admire and applaud them. I do not envy your clear-headedness but my mind tends to be boggled over this whole Agenda for Prosperity business. Is it prosperity they are talking about or is it in fact adversity? What is the percentage of citizens who are prospering compared to those in adversity? Among the fastest-growing nations and the slowest-growing people. Almost everybody wants to be an ultra-multi-millionaire.
GOD’S PROSPERITY
God’s Agenda for Prosperity is quite a different proposition. It is in contradiction from the much-vaunted Agenda for Prosperity which is a camouflage for P.R.S.P III by the propagandists extraordinary.
We often expect God to give us our daily bread, pay our bills, keep the enemy from robbing us of success but do we always look at our attitudes to see if we are obeying all of his commandments? Many of us recite the word of God expecting him to fill our bank accounts with money and our garages with vehicles when we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God including forgiving those who wrong us or hurt us.
But when we do all His commandments and forgive those who have sinned against us then we can expect his kingdom on earth to be prosperous like the one in heaven.
It’s going to get “gooder” and “gooder” as we learn more and more how to make his kingdom work on earth.
Praise God we don’t have to worry what happens to our economy when we are operating in the realm of God’s laws.
But if we are operating in the realm of God’s laws, how is it that in Sierra Leone we are again missing out on the MCC for 2015 and 2016. How is it that we have the highest mortality rate in child births in the world? Are we not operating under the Devil’s Laws?
Let us have the assurance that God will make a way for His righteous ones never to be forsaken or to beg their bread. He may require us to go on a fast for Him to provide our needs, but that’s alright. He may require us to live on one meal a day but in that case we need to maintain perfect health and strength.
Abraham trusted in God and he had all his needs supplied. The Lord was with Joseph and he was a prosperous man according to Genesis 39:2. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever so why should we worry if we are children of God and doing what he said for we should do? It's exciting to know that we don’t have to be operating when God promises prosperity. His conditions are so simple and are worth it all. Sometimes He requires a lot from us but He always comes through gloriously if we keep trusting in Him.
God often requires a lot from us according to our faith and trust in him, no matter what happens. Some of his conditions are to work hard, produce good results in our labor, work six days a week, use common sense, use good judgment, work diligently, love our neighbour and our boss as ourselves, trust God with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding.
But all those things seem trivial when compared with the security found in trusting God and his return system. The Bible does not in any case encourage laziness that is regarded as one of the deadly sins.
PROSPERITY CHURCHES AND MESSAGES
Did you know that the mainstream churches are emptying evangelists mainly because of their lack of prosperity messages that most of the materialistic Christians look up to? Many Christians are more concerned with the riches they can amass than their ultimate salvation. Prosperity messages are gospel messages purporting to liberate the poor. They are not bothered but Christ’s statement that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The prosperity gospel took root in the 50s and 60s in the America’s. Their evangelists rant; “God will bless you and your blessing will be prosperity. He will fulfil your dreams and every aspiration of your heart will become a reality” etc. How many will remain in the drab and uninteresting circumstances of the mainstream churches when riches are waiting to be received in those churches of prosperity?
Giving is curiously one of the best ways by which one can be prosperous. In Islam almsgiving is called Zakat and it is one of the five pillars of Islam. In Christianity it is said that it is even more blessed to give than to receive.
One needs only to put these religious edicts to the test and see what happens. In the Bible the paying of tithes is recommended for prosperity. In Malachi 3:10 it is written ; “bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house; and thereby put me to test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an over flowing blessing.” The sad news is that Jew try it owing to disbelief.
SATAN’S PROSPERITY
Did you know that some of the opulence you see around comes from the underworld headed by Satan the prince of this world ably assisted by his demons? Don’t be unduly envious of that 4X4 jeep owned by your colleague, friend or acquaintances; that seven-storey state-of-the-art building; that fat bank account that they have etc. The Bible says what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? In other words that Bible is talking about a person ending up in hell. Some mega churches preaching the prosperity gospel may be enmeshed in this mire of “get rich and be damned.”
TO CONCLUDE
Do our national policies aim at the common prosperity of all?
“All men have happiness as their object: there is no exception. However different the means they employ, they all aim at the same end. –Blaise Pascal
(C) Politico 03/06/14
